Thursday, 22 December 2016

I had to write another post to explain and assist on how some of us are surviving in these very trying times. My previous post on bond notes tips got over 5000 shares on Facebook , Twitter and Google. Thanks for that. I got inspired to expand on this by Elias Saidi a friend on Facebook.I give part if not all credit to him on this post.

Here I am going to explain how to transfer money without paying heavy bank charges or EcoCash charges.We have an option to transfer money cheaper than what the mobile platforms are charging.

RTGS VERSUS ZIPIT

Even after the recent downward review of the bank charges, the truth is that RTGSs (and people looking to access their cash have to make a lot of them) at $3 a transaction, are still quite expensive to do. And of course EcoCash still charges the sender up to $7 for a $100 transfer to an unregistered number and a recipient $3 to cash it out – $10 transaction fees in total . You can visit Econet website for more information on their website.

The sad thing is that there’s a way to avoid these heavy bank charges but the awareness of how is just very low.

There’s mobile money service that almost all banks offer. It’s almost like EcoCash but it uses ZimSwitch’s ZIPIT technology.

WHAT ZIPIT IS AND WHY THE BIG DEAL?

Almost every bank has a mobile money service (you can call it mobile banking) that you can access via your mobile phone’s USSD just like EcoCash and Telecash. It’s a big deal for 2 reasons:

1) The first is that you can transfer as much as $10,000 to almost any bank account in Zimbabwe for just a flat fee of about $1

2) The second reason is that all transfers go through instantly so no more waiting days for RTGSs to go through.

You can use the service for other things as well like buying airtime and paying bills.

WHICH ARE THE BANKS THAT HAS ZIPIT?

Each bank has a different name pr brand for it but it’s just the same ZIPIT service at the core.

For example, CABS calls it Textacash, FBC calls it Mobile Moola, at CBZ it’s CBZ Touch, at MetBank MetClick and so on. But essentially when you approach your bank, you want to ask them about their new phone USSD based banking. (don’t mention ZIPIT as some tellers will give you a blank stare – I had that experience at NMB.)

HOW TO GET YOUR DEBIT CARDS

To start using the service you simply enable mobile banking on your existing bank account by signing up at your bank. Kind of the same same way enabled internet banking on your account.If, however, you happen to not have a bank account at all, then open one. The above accounts just need your national identity card to be issued with a card. The cards are issued on application and are all activated immediately.

Friday, 2 December 2016

You need a debit card to survive in these times. There are cards that you can get for free. Ecocash, Telecash and Textacash are free and you only need a photocopy of your national identity card. These cards are issued immediately . These cards can be linked to your mobile phone. These cards are also on Zimswitch so you can transact any where and any time.

LETS GO MOBILE

BOND NOTES AND YOUR BANK ACCOUNT.

The money in your account remains in USA dollars. The money is in the banking system it retain its value. It is the bond notes in the informal sector which are open to abuse by unscrupulous black market operators. So my advise if you have bond notes bank them immediately to get the USA dollar value.

BOND NOTES ARE HERE

CASH OR CARD

BANKING PRODUCTSAll banks have products that give you a card for that allow to swipe instead of always paying cash. Swiping can save you money in form of transaction costs and transport cost ,especially if you live far from your bank.

These debit cards allows us to pay for almost anything with it.All banks are on Zimswitch and this allows us the banking public to get money at any bank.l feel a limit of $20 on Zimswitch's ATM person should be imposed by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

BILLER CODES & MERCHANT BANK ACCOUNTSWe should have biller and merchant codes for every service provider for their biller/merchant code. It is not a bad idea or rude to ask for your creditors bank account number.This will make it easier for us to transfer monies amongst us. We can use ZIPIT and RTGS.

LET US GO INTERNATIONAL

FOREIGN DEBIT CARDS Banks are offering VISA ,Mastercard and other international debit cards. These will allow you to transact outside our borders. You can bank those bond notes and get USA dollar value outside. Cross border traders can use these cards for purchases

WHY GO CASHLESS?

This country is under foreign sanctions and we need to safeguard our banking sector from foreign manipulation. Keeping our money in our banking systems allows authorities to control and monitor all financial services. Money laundering and illegal transactions like smuggling are driven by cash. Going cashless is a state security priority and it is every citizen's responsibility